2025 Reading Challenge discussion

With this month's theme being History, we thought a great monthly challenge would be for us to look at our own book histories.
Revisit books you've been meaning to re-read, whether they are old friends or comfort reads, books you've read too long ago to fully recall, or titles you want to revisit now that you're older or in a different place in life. Perhaps one of you want to read an earlier books in a series you need to reread to refresh your mind for the next installment.

To participate in this challenge, pick the number of books you would like to re-read, and let us know how many.
We can't wait for you to catch up with these old friends.

Candiss is the creator and leader of this challenge. Thank you Candiss!

I've saddled myself with a fair bit for February as it is already, I'm worried I'm going to end up over committing and not playing my cards right. They're mostly things that can theoretically be pushed in to March if needs be though, so I'm not massively worried. Still only going to aim for three though. Plus many of these I was planning on reading some time later in the year anyway. I just don't want to rob Peter to pay Paul, is what I'm saying. Heh.

1. Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt (11/2/16)
2. Macbeth by William Shakespeare (13/2/16)
3. Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (22/2/16)
4. Hamlet by William Shakespeare (17/2/16)

4/3

Participants:

Alison | 1/1 - COMPLETED!
Andrew | 1/1
Anna | 0/3
Blagica | 2/4
Candiss | 1/2
Carolyn | 0/5
Cheri | 2/2 - COMPLETED!
Christa | 21/21 - COMPLETED!
Claire | 0/4
Clare | 4/4 - COMPLETED!
Cynthia | 0/3
Erika| 2/2 - COMPLETED!
Jackie B | 0/3
Jaime | 2/2 - COMPLETED!
JuliaOrlando | 3/4
Kadijah Michelle | 3/3 - COMPLETED!
Kelly | 2/2 - COMPLETED!
Kim | 0/2
Laura | 3/3 - COMPLETED!
Linda | 3/3 - COMPLETED!
Lindsay | 0/3
Maria | 5/5 - COMPLETED!
Maureen | 0/2
Nicole | 0/3
Nik | 2/1 - COMPLETED!
Paul | 4/3 - COMPLETED!
Rachael | 5/4 - COMPLETED!
Renee | 0/3
Sam F | 1/3
Sarah | 2/2 (#23) - COMPLETED!
Sarah | 0/2 (#29)
Sarah | 0/3 (#90)
Sharon | 0/2
Sherry | 2/2 - COMPLETED!
Stephanie | 2/2 - COMPLETED!
Tarah | 6/15
Therese | 0/1
Willemijn 2/3
Winter | 2/2 - COMPLETED!

Your Reading History! Re-read Your Favorites

Goal: Re-read 2 books. These two books I think is perfect for this challenge. I have only read The Unicorn one time, but it has sort of followed me through my whole life. The other one just evokes such strong memories and my copy has my name, adress, school, phonenumber and age (8) written in it..

1. Enhjørningen, André Bjerke
2. The Brothers Lionheart, Astrid Lindgren

Total: 2/2

Challenge Complete

Your Reading History! Re-read Your Favorites

I'm in. I'll try 5. (possible reads)

Les Miserables
Lord of the Flies
A Midsummer Night's Dream
The Importance of Being Earnest
Oedipus Rex

Much like Paul, I'm in danger of getting in over my head. I'm going to start with 2 rereads from books I currently own, and if I get my other reading done, I'll ease up to 3 or 4.

1. Bellwether - Connie Willis
2. The Princess Bride - William Goldman

Read: 1/2

* possible rereads:
• any of the plays by Euripides or Aristophanes (I loved these 30 years ago and want to revisit them now.)
• Dune - Frank Herbert
• Pandemonium - Daryl Gregory
• Sharp Teeth - Toby Barlow
• The Hearing Trumpet - Leonora Carrington
• The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov
• Brave New World - Aldoux Huxley
• Ki Longfellow - Flow Down Like Silver
• Stephen King - On Writing
• Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury

Nice list Candiss! I got Brave New World and awaiting Dune probably within two days. Did you like those two?

I loved Dune. It's full of terrific world-building, intricate political and religious maneuvering, and wonderful cultural and environmental detail. Then there's the deep strains of commentary on things in our own world, especially regarding resources, environment, and things such as manifest destiny... I want to re-read it so I can move on in the series, which I never continued with after reading the first book in the late 1980s.

Brave New World is also excellent, but it's rather harrowing and horrifying in its satire of our real-world tendencies toward numbing ourselves (through peer pressure, consumerism, prescribed drugs, recreation, and other forms of distraction,) and accepting the status quo. It is also horrifying to see a world where literature is verboten, but it is interesting how it has become a touch-stone for certain people, all the same. (I'm trying to not be too spoilery.)

I am wanting to reread BNW because I only recently learned that Huxley wrote a sequel of sorts - Island - some 30 years later after re-assessing his earlier material. He decided to tackle a future society from pretty much the exact opposite angles, showing how many of the things he satirized in BNW can also be helpful, while things he showed as positive can be bad.

Now I am really exited for them both! Thank you for the detailed descriptions!!

I haven't started Lord of the Flies yet, so I'll just save it till February. I'm slated to start a huge book I'm february for a buddy read too

Alison wrote: "I haven't started Lord of the Flies yet, so I'll just save it till February. I'm slated to start a huge book I'm february for a buddy read too"

Alison, shall I put you down for 1 book, then, or "to be determined"?

I will try for 3 books I've read - but only managed to read 1:

A classic - Lord of the Flies by William Golding

So looking at my planned reads I should really read the ones I have set up and it is more than enough, but one can be pushed and Red Mars could technically sit on the shelf a little longer even though I'm very intrigued by it. I think I just love this challenge too much not to participate, I will go for a modest number of 2 books though.

Call me a wimp if ya want, but my reading list is very busy right now, so I will only minimally be participating in this one. I have been wanting to dive into the Discworld series (which is around fifty books) and to do so I need to re-read the first book, The Color of Magic. I read it around fifteen years ago or so!

So, my goal is, um, one book!

FINISHED 2/27/2016 (1 book, as expected, The Color of Magic)

Andrew, I am a huge Discworld fan! I've been thinking of re-reading a few faves from that series, too.

Candiss wrote: "Andrew, I am a huge Discworld fan! I've been thinking of re-reading a few faves from that series, too."

I have no idea why I didn't continue after that first book...I really enjoyed it and figure the series could only get better from there.

I am going to try for 2. Not sure which 2 yet

I'm going to sign up for 3.

1. Little Women
2. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
3. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

Completed!

And all the books I will read with my Son. He and I read a lot of Dr. Seuss.

I refuse to bite of more then I can handle but I must do at least 4!
thank you for leading!

Sign me up! Like others, I have lots of other reading commitments already set up, so I'll go for 3 as well. Thanks for coming up with these amazing challenges!

1. What Happened to Lani Garver (Feb. 10, 2016)
2. The Language of Flowers (Feb. 15, 2016)
3. This is Where I Leave You (Feb. 26, 2016)

This is right up my alley since I reread all the time. I will sign up for 5

What a great challenge! Can I sign up for 2?

Life After Life - I've just got the companion novel / sequel to this and need to revisit. (finished 15 Feb)

The Colour of Magic - blatantly stealing Andrew's idea... (finished 24 Feb)

Sign me up for two please! :) I already have a loads planned for February but there's room to squeeze in a couple of rereads!

YOUR READING HISTORY
Duration: February 1st - February 29th 2016

With this month's theme being History, we thought a great monthly challenge would be for us to look at our own book histories.
Revisit books you've been meaning to re-read, whether they are old friends or comfort reads, books you've read too long ago to fully recall, or titles you want to revisit now that you're older or in a different place in life.

1. Holes by Louis Sachar ✔
2. The Early Years at Malory Towers: 3 Books in 1 by Enid Blyton ✔

COMPLETE: 2/2

Kadijah Michelle wrote: "I'm going to sign up for 3.

1. Little Women
2, TBD
3. TBD

And all the books I will read with my Son. He and I read a lot of Dr. Seuss."

I love your choice for yourself and with your son. I am not in this challenge, but I would pick Little Women as number one too!

I would like to set my goal for 2 rereads.
I know one will be Dealing with Dragons, but not sure about the second one yet (leaning towards The Road, but also thinking of Ender's Game).

I want to reread The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy so I may as well do that in February. So my target for this challenge is FOUR books please.

Progress
1. The Hobbit - read 3rd February, **** plus review written
2. The Fellowship of the Ring - read 10 February, ****
3. The Two Towers - read 16 February, ****
4. The Return of the King - read 21 February, 3.5 stars with review
Bonus reread: The Tales of Beedle the Bard - read 24 February, *****
COMPLETED: 5/4

I've got a few re-reads on my list for this year so will see if I can read 4 in Feb possibly:

4/4 completed

Five on a Treasure Island
The Dolls' House
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Blue Sky July

I think I would like to do 2 retreads this month.
1. To Kill a Mockingbird
2. Black Powder War - by Novik

I think I'm going to try for three although that might be being ambitious.

1. The Dhammapada
2. Kushiel's Dart
3. Narrow Road to the Interior

I think I'll try for three re-reads in February.

1. Daughter of Smoke & Bone 2/21/16
2. Girl With a Pearl Earring 2/22/16
3. Deep Secret 2/26/16

*Complete*

I'm in for 3!

I'm going to go for 2! Hopefully I can get to more, but February's planned reads are stacking up quickly for me :)

I wont be doing this one I'm trying to read 60 that I have never read before with bounce points if I have never read the author before.

I'm in for three, all Newbery Award Winners!

Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan- Completed 2/17/16
Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell - Completed 2/29/16
Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse

I'm in for three


1.Storm Prey by John Sandford
2.Buried Prey by John Sandford
3.Stolen Prey by John Sandford

Completed 3/3

I'll try for 2, sometimes hard as I don't count re-reads in my total for the year but also fun to spend time with an old friend :)

Challenge complete!

Trying to overextend myself as much as possible! ;)
I'll go for two:

✔ 1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
✔ 2. Euphoria

I will try to do 2.

update Winter 1/2

I'm on board for 14! I have quite a few re-reads planned for the year, so might as well get them out of the way this month!

3/14

✓ 1. Spock's World
✓ 2. Go the Fuck to Sleep
✓ 3. Bitch Planet, Vol 1: Extraordinary Machine
4. You're Never Weird on the Internet
5. The Night Circus
6. The Crucible
7. Prey
8. Thank You for Smoking
9. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
10. A Walk to Remember
11. Hogfather
12. Hoot
13. Almost Like Being in Love
14. The Bell Jar

If I'm feeling particularly ambitious / get ahead of schedule, I might add the Lord of the Rings books too. Let's see how it goes.

In for 1, for now. Just enough to plant my flag and say I was here. =P

I'll try and do 2. Have joined a few other challenges so don't want to put myself down for too many :-/

I'm in for 2!

Update for Rachael. New target of 4 (see message 27 for why) and I have also read my first book for this challenge.

I'll try for three.

Update: 2/2 Finished! :)

1/5

Lord of the Flies 2-5-16

put me down for 1

1/4
The Notebook

Put me down for 4 please.